Steven Dybvad – Personal Journal – June 11, 2014

Shortly after my arrest, I continued using substances at the beginning of my stay in the county jail. Often people would have drugs on them in jail, either because the arresting officers weren’t thorough enough in their initial pat down or search after arrest, or the person just brought in a prepared package of drugs knowing that they were coming into jail. Regardless of how the drugs came into jail, I was using them during the first month or so of my stay in jail. Many people with long lengths of sobriety know the exact date of their sobriety and the last time they used. Unfortunately for me, I don’t know the exact date of my sobriety. When I came to jail, knowing I was about to do some time in prison, I had no plans of changing my life around, I saw my life as ruined already, pointless to change anything, ready to be an average inmate, drinking hooch, doing drugs, getting tattoos, joining a gang, etc., etc. Since I was introduced to Justin Paperny and the Michael Santos foundation, my views on life and my future all changed. Justin helped me to understand that I still had a great opportunity to change my life around and be a successful man, father, family member and a contributing, respected member of society. I wanted everything that Justin was drawing a beautiful picture of for me and I was willing to do whatever it took to get it. So I quit looking for drugs, I decided not to get tattoos or join any gangs once I came to prison, I created this blog with the help of my parents and now I even have my first book in the works. I was arrested on March 25th, 2011, that’s more than three years and three months ago. So now I can safely say that I have three years of good sobriety. That’s the longest length of time that I’ve been sober for since I was fourteen years old. I feel great about my sobriety, my mind becomes clearer with every day that passes and the values, morals and ethics that my parents worked so hard to burn in my brain strengthen with each day and each test I continue to pass in prison. I have no doubts that God saved my life by guiding me to prison, thus being introduced to Justin Paperny and Michael Santos as a result of my prison sentence. Today I finally think about my future and my family instead of where I am going to get my next fix.